When a batter in a baseball game hits a ball off the thin part of his bat toward the area where he takes his grip, a strong shock is sent to the batter's hand, which can cause bruises of the bones of the thumb, and index finger and the soft cradle of tissue lying between the thumb and index finger. These bruises are easily aggravated and quickly become a painful and recurring problem for batters. Once a batter's hand sustains such a bruise, it becomes more sensitive to further shocks which very often causes the batter unknowingly to become less aggressive and hence a less effective batter. The severity of repeated injury to the bruised area and constant trauma also interrupts the healing process.
Even long after the bruise has healed the batter's stroke can be adversely effected. Subtle changes induced by compensating for the injury, which are often difficult to detect or correct may detrimentally affect the batter's performance in a manner that passes undetected by even a competent coach.
Batters are normally instructed to hold the bat near their fingertips (for example by the last two digits) in order to obtain much greater control of the bat and therefore to enhance their ability to make better contact with the ball. This is generally a difficult instruction for batters to follow and batters typically allow the bat to rest deep in the cradle between the thumb and index finger, which gives a false psychological feeling of improved control over the bat and of greater hitting power.
It's known in the prior art for batters to employ batting gloves, however, none are known which protect the area of concern with respect to batter's bone bruises. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,407 discloses a padded protective device to protect the palm and back of the wearer's hand and suggest that such may be worn by players of such games as volleyball. The '407 patent stresses that the device it disclosed does not impede the use of the player's fingers and thumb. In fact the device has a thumb hole that is placed in a portion spaced away from the padding so that no significant protection is afforded the thumb-finger cradle area.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,465,223 discloses a padded handsand or protector for baseball players. However, this is designed to protect the ballplayer from the impact of a caught ball and did not appreciate nor attempt to solve the problems addressed by the present invention. In particular all its padding is in the palm area of the device where it provides no protection for the batter.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,501,773 discloses an athletic glove for baseball players. However, this is designed only to control the wrist action of the players and does not provide any significant protection to the thumb-finger cradle area.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,738,190 discloses a pad for bowlers. The disclosed purpose of this pad is merely to fill the space that occurs between the bowler's palm and the ball in the specialized grip that bowlers employ. This pad could not be of use to batters because it would not afford the protection needed in the thumb-forefinger cradle area and if used would dispose the bat at an awkward angle deeply into the thumb finger cradle, which would worsen the batter's hitting performance, i.e. it would emphasize palm control at the expense of fingertip control. U.S. Pat. No. 3,496,573 discloses a similar palm covering and suggests its use for several sports including baseball, but only in connection with baseball control. It would be inappropriate for employment by batters for the same reasons as stated for the pad of the U.S. Pat. No. 2,738,190 patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,887,278 discloses hand protectors for golfers. These however are designed only to protect against abrasion of a twisting club. They could not protect or aid a baseball batter in the manner of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,690,312 describes a clip device for attachment to a golf club during training only to teach a proper grip. There is no protective cushioning associated with that device because there is no impact problem at the golfers hands because a golf club always strikes the ball with the head of the club. The device is also designed to impede and not enhance fingertip control of the club.
Copies of each of the foregoing patents are enclosed.
In none of this prior art then is there an appreciation of the problem of thumb-index finger cradle protection solved by the present invention nor is an apparatus disclosed that would be useful for the baseball batter.
The conventional batting glove is customarily designed only to enhance friction between the batter's hands and the bat. Batting gloves are customarily worn under an outfielder's or an infielder's fielding glove. Any permanent padding built into a batting glove would tend to interfere with fielding. It would prove to be bulky and uncomfortable interfering with the secure grasp executed while catching the ball. Furthermore, some batters prefer not to wear batting gloves.